And as we settle into our seats in the middle of the restaurant, in front of five pristine, empty glasses, a pencil and an A4 sheet of paper featuring a 5x4 grid, the pair explain our duties.

The wines are listed on the Y-axis of the grid, and along the X-axis are the various dishes organised into mild, savoury, sweet and spicy groupings.

So the wine is poured and the food is served, and we Tuesday Tasters begin diligently to mark our scoresheets with: P+ (pass plus) for “a great match”; P (pass) for ”wine and food work together”; ? (question) for “a poor match but drinkable” and O (out), which means “awful, undrinkable”.

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And immediately there’s a problem for the Fitou. “I was worried about that one,” says Parkinson. Perfectly pleasant on its own, it clashes terribly with the mild dishes, which include fried scampi & foie gras and seared scallops & caviar. Things don’t improve for the wine with the savoury or spicy meals, and unravel entirely with the sweet plates. It’s out.

The Masseria Altemura divides opinion and — as such — also fails to make the cut.

But the others all fare better, and the aggregate scores reveal a triumph for the Reisling and Pinot Noir; and a more qualified success for the Sauvignon Blanc.

These three will find their way on to the Hakkasan wine list — in Dubai at least — taking their place alongside those that have previously passed muster.

Hakkasan doesn’t provide explicit wine and food matching advice on its menu. The descriptors for each wine are simple and concise, but the team can be sure that any wine choice will work (or at least be drinkable) with any dish.

And with four trained sommeliers on the staff, and usually two or three working any dinner shift, customers can always call on a walking, talking expert to guide them through the well-organised wine listings.

Gasselin says that most requests for a sommelier recommendation centre on the choice of grape varieties, regional variations and, increasingly, the price, rather than what wine would work well with the prawn fritters & truffle or Chilean seabass with Chinese honey, for example.

As the Tuesday Tasting draws to a close, Parkinson genuinely thanks us for our ‘efforts’. “When you see the three wines on the Hakkasan list,” she says, “remember the food you had to taste to get them there.”

We certainly will. It was our pleasure. And coincidentally, we are definitely available every second Tuesday!